1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to storage network systems, and particularly to systems and methods for monitoring high-speed network traffic via sequentially multiplexed data streams.
2. Description of Background
In storage network systems such as illustrated in FIG. 1, which have internalized high-speed fabrics, a high-speed switch is used to provide connectivity amongst individual servers and associated storage. In addition, such network storage systems can include multiple high-speed fabrics (1× and 4×), High-speed, differential signaling is used to provide high bandwidth connections between a central serial attached SCSI (SAS) switch and other endpoints such as other switches or downstream or upstream storage components, SAS can implement several configurations, such as fiber channel, Ethernet, SCSI, etc., and several topologies, such as 16 external SAS ports, which can be “wide” or “narrow”. A wide port can include single 1× links (e.g., PHYs) or multiple links for a 4×, 8×, 12×, etc., wide port.
In such systems, much of the storage area network (SAN) is internalized, wherein the server blades and the switch modules are coupled to one another via internal fabric. Such internalization can create problems that require access to pertinent data for problem detection, analysis and fault isolation. In some SAN systems, test equipment (e.g., a logic analyzer) can be inserted or onto a suspected high-speed interlace such as the external fiber channel and capture pertinent data for problem resolution. However, when high-speed fabrics are internalized, it becomes difficult to access the fabric for troubleshooting problems. Although solutions, such as creating software trace events in microcode and directing error messages to a debug port, have been implemented, such solutions have shortcomings, including inaccurate detail of the failure, non real-time reporting of the failure, and resultant numerous iterations of adding a debug patch to isolate the problem. Other more invasive methods can include adding wires to a card to allow internal probing. This hardware-type approach is invasive to the system, limiting in analysis capability, and can cause potential corruption of the monitored date. In other instances, permanent electrical damage to the probed fabric circuitry can result. Although many of these approaches can be implemented in a controlled laboratory setting, these approaches are unsuitable for & customer environment. Therefore, there exists a need for systems and methods to troubleshoot internalized high-speed fabric networks in a customer environment.